Sale 2528 - African-American Fine Art, January 30, 2020

77 c ELIZABETH CATLETT (1915 - 2012) Sister . Cast bronze, with a brushed patina and white inlaid eyes, mounted on a wooden base, 1973. Approximately 330x254x165 mm; 13x10x6 1 / 2 inches (not including the base). A unique cast, confirmed by the artist’s estate. Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; the Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., Chicago (1973). Sister is a beautiful bust and significant mid-career bronze by Elizabeth Catlett. Catlett has created in Sister a representation of a modern woman that ref lects confidence and strength, incorporating her many interests in sculpture. The artist made an earlier version of the same- titled subject in green marble in 1971. Melanie Herzog describes the features of the marble version in detail: “this bust is elegant in the strength of its simplicity, with beautifully organic curves that define its generalized shapes. The upturned face recalls the face of Mujer , but Sister ’s title suggests an African-American woman’s identity and outlook. The eyes and nose of Sister are similar in their geometrization to those of the faces in Black Unity .” Sister was also recorded in Samella Lewis’s The Art of Elizabeth Catlett as a known sculpture in 1985. Special thanks to David Mora Catlett for his assistance. Herzog p. 154; Lewis p. 189. [50,000/75,000]